Summary

In “Midsummer,” God expresses his despair about all of the living things he has created. He asks how he could possibly help them when they all want something different. He describes their competing voices “calling out...strangling each other / in the open field” (34). He criticizes their selfishness and self-importance.

In “Vespers (#1),” Glück addresses God, declaring that when she believed in him, she planted a fig tree as a test: “if the tree lived, / it would mean you existed” (36). The tree did not grow, but this may have been because of the climate in Vermont. She states that in a just world, people like herself “whom nature forces / into lives of abstinence, should get / the lion's share of all things” (36). She believes that she deserves to sit at God's right hand, “if it exists” (36).

In “Vespers (#2),” Glück addresses God, telling him that...